Letter from Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
I’ve seen many posts on Facebook of lifelong Labour supporters refusing to vote Labour in the local council elections. I shall be voting Labour and I’ll encourage others to do so. The reasons given by many on the left for refusing to vote Labour are varied. The purge and the treatment of Corbyn are just some of the reasons.
My reasons for supporting Labour are twofold. Labour, despite the nature of its leadership, is still the party of the trade unions and the working class. It’s a class question and voting for anything else or not at all is (if unwittingly) giving succour to the class enemy, the Tories, who are the mouthpieces of big business.
There’s another important reason for giving critical, support for Labour, despite Starmer and Co. They think that watering down the more radical elements of Labour’s programme under Corbyn’s leadership will secure victory at the next general election. Given the growing unpopularity of the Tories, they are likely to win. However, the more politically-conscious workers will demand meaningful reforms that the leadership will be unable to introduce, because they accept capitalism (supposedly with a more ‘human’ face). A struggle within the Labour Party is inevitable with the possibility of a repeat, although under different conditions, of Labour right-wingers joining forces with the Tories to form a ‘National’ Government.
I spoke to a guy recently who was a supporter of Blair and even backed the war on Iraq. He described the Tories as ‘scum’. He was supporting Raynor’ s comment to the same effect, which she later retracted. This story maybe anecdotal, but I believe it reflects the mood of the more politically advanced workers. Socialists should do all in their power to remain in Labour, without abandoning their ideas. They are much more likely to receive a sympathetic response from workers when they do take the path of reclaiming their party.
